DOCTOR IN ON-LINE VIAGRA CASE CLOSES OFFICE

A Naperville doctor closed his office on Thursday, one day after state
regulators suspended his license following charges that he sold the
anti-impotence prescription drug Viagra over the Internet.

Dr. Robert Filice, of the Naperville Holistic Health Center, 1280
Iroquois Ave., did not return telephone calls Thursday, but he
released a statement saying that he has taken every care to protect
patient safety in his work on-line.

The doctor of 26 years said he has never been cited by the Illinois
Department of Professional Regulation and argued that the agency has
no documentation proving he has done harm.

"What he is guilty of is being a pioneer in a new and unexplored
area," the statement read. The state took Filice's license "with the
hope and intention of crushing innovation and seeing to it that as a
result of his experience no other qualified, competent and caring
physician will dare enter the area of online medicine."

A May 19 hearing on the case is set.

The Department of Regulation alleges Filice, while working as a
consultant for the Pill Box Pharmacy in San Antonio, sold Viagra over
the Internet without personally examining, meeting with or
interviewing the patients he was treating.

State investigators began looking into Filice in November after a
newspaper article quoted him as saying he worked for Pill Box and was
writing, via the Internet, about 40 Viagra prescriptions a day,
according to department spokesman Tony Sanders.

"When he does this, there's no way to tell if he's dealing with a
16-year-old boy, a 34-year-old woman or a 300-pound man who might be
in danger by taking the drug," Sanders said.

The Food and Drug Administration said doctors should be careful in
prescribing Viagra because it is deadly if given to a man with a heart
condition.

On the Pill Box Internet site, a single-page prescription form asks
the user several basic medical questions and three yes-or-no questions
that deal specifically with Viagra, including whether the patient is
taking any other drugs.

But Sanders said on-line patients could be lying.

After the newspaper article appeared, Sanders said, an investigator
working for the state filled out the Viagra request form and received
the drug in the mail after it had been prescribed by Filice.

The investigatorvisited Filice, Sanders said, and found the
investigator's medical file held the form he had filled out and little
else.

In his statement, Filice said that his actions met the medical
standard of care and that the investigator completed the on-line
questionnaire, claiming to be impotent.

"No harm was done to this `patient,' " the statement said. "Dr. Filice
is confident that when the details of the Internet service with which
he is associated are discussed and scrutinized . . . that his license
will be reinstated."